First night at 'the Grove.'

It seems like every track we end up going to on the World of Outlaws schedule is a first time visit for me. Aside from Eldora, Knoxville, Dodge City and a few more, I should be sporting two yellow stripes across the back of my khakis as I attempt to navigate the dirt tracks of American (and Canada for that matter.) One of the stops I was looking forward to the most was the Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Penn. This semi banked, half mile oval is steeped in tradition and is almost mythical. Growing up in the plains of Kansas, we rarely heard of this grand track with the likes of Knoxville and Devils Bowl Speedway dominating the headlines. I remember as early as 1995 of reading about how Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell battled for wins in the face of some of the toughest local competition anywhere. I experienced the track virtually after Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars was released for the PC. I spent several summer nights waiting up until my parents fell asleep and then quietly turning on our Gateway computer to experience the thrills of Husets, Knoxville and this place called Williams Grove via simulation. I had to wait up because my mother despised computer games since I usually ended up crashing the family's only computer in my motorsports pursuits I came to love racing the track on the computer and eventually mastered the set up that would carry the #5M car of Mark Kinser that doubled as my own (Big Mopar fan here and that car just was AWESOME looking) to many victories.



I arrived in person a little bit before noon on a Friday the 13th. It was interesting to take in all the sights I had heard so much about and to see the die hard fans camping for seemed like acres upon acres of green grass. Once we had completed our regular series duties, I explored a bit more and used the blue backstretch bridge, visited Beer Hill and other places.



Something that caught me as the day and night progressed was the general excitement and buzz in the air. This speedway really has the feel of a college football game. When the Outlaws come to town, it's like Ohio State going into the "Big House" in Michigan or USC coming to play the Fighting Irish in South Bend. Everyone has a side and there can be no middle ground.

As we settled into racing action for the night, I couldn't help but describe the place as Martinsville with dirt. With it's paper clip design and tight narrow corners, the right gear and big horsepower would be the keys to victory. The Penn. Posse flexed some serious muscle last night as Stevie Smith, Brian Zeppo and Daryn Pittman were the only three leaders on the night. Smith appeared to have victory well at hand until a jumped start dropped him back a row for the next one. This opened the door for Pittman to show what he had in his Heffner Racing #27 as he tracked down the leader Leppo and executed a brilliant slide job in two turn. Pittman led the final six laps to score his 30th career WoO victory (to go along with six preliminary wins) and first Outlaws triumph for his owner. Daryn is the kind of guy you can't help but pull for. The fresh faced Oklahoman has fans across the country from his years of racing on the Outlaw circuit and proved to be a big draw when the series visited the Salina Highbanks earlier this month.

As we gear up for day two, I look forward to taking in more of the sights, trying more of the food and hopefully interviewing an Outlaw in victory lane twice tonight. It really would be nice to walk into the office each morning and see that brilliant Sterling silver cup as a reminder of my first trip to 'the Grove.'